Jumping rope can provide an effective aerobic and anaerobic workout that also improves coordination, agility, and footwork. To fully realize the benefits of jumping rope, a jump rope user usually has to actively switch between different types of ropes.
For example, lightweight ropes, sometimes referred to as “speed ropes,” can be rotated quickly, allowing users to focus on cardiovascular fitness, while simultaneously developing coordination and speed. But such lightweight ropes fail to provide any significant muscle strengthening and endurance benefits to the upper-body because the force required to rotate the rope is relatively small.
Heavier ropes, sometimes referred to as “heavy ropes” or “weighted ropes,” require greater force to rotate, which improves muscle strength, endurance, and tone in the upper body, in particular in the forearms, biceps, and shoulders. But such heavy ropes cannot be rotated very quickly and, thus, fail to provide the cardiovascular benefits of speed ropes. Moreover, the slower rotation of heavy ropes makes it difficult, if not impossible, to perform movements that target coordination, agility, and footwork, such as double-jumps (or double-unders).
In addition, as a user becomes acclimated to the weight of a weighted rope, he or she may need to buy additional ropes, each of increasingly heavier weight, in order to continue to improve muscle strength and endurance. Further, as a user becomes more skilled at jumping rope, a shorter rope is often needed, which may require purchasing multiple rope(s) of varying length. Thus, a user may need to ultimately purchase multiple weighted ropes and multiple speed ropes, in order to fully realize the benefits of jumping rope. Similarly, gyms and other fitness facilities may need to purchase and maintain multiple jump ropes of varying lengths (and weights) in order to accommodate differences in their clientele's heights, strength, and skill levels.
Currently, no jump rope device exists which can provide the benefits of a speed rope and weighted rope in one device, while allowing a user to progressively increase the weight and, optionally, decrease (or increase) the length of the jump rope.
Some weighted jump rope devices allow users to increase the weight of a jump rope by adding sand or water. While this allows a user to increase the weight of the rope, the sand or water has a tendency to settle towards the center of the rope portion, making the distribution of weight uneven throughout the rope. This uneven distribution of weight makes jumping rope awkward, and impedes a user's ability to achieve and maintain a smooth and natural rotation of the jump rope. In addition, it is difficult for a user to gauge the exact weight he or she is adding to the rope, because of the difficulty in determining the exact amount of material (e.g., water or sand) being added to the rope and the material's weight. Therefore, it is difficult to uniformly increase, or scale-up, the weight of the jump rope. It is also cumbersome to travel with such devices or to use such devices in various training environments, as they require either traveling with sand or water, or training in areas where you can get ready access to such materials. Moreover, such devices do not lend themselves to speed rope style training, and therefore, do not provide the same cardiovascular and speed training benefits as a speed rope.
Some weighted jump rope devices allow a user to adjust the weight of each handle. But, while providing some increase in resistance, increasing the weight of the handles fails to provide the same resistive force as increasing the weight of the rope portion of the jump rope, and therefore, is not as effective an upper body workout as increasing the weight of the rope portion. In addition, because the weight is in the handles as opposed to the rope portion, such devices impede a user's ability to smoothly and naturally rotate the jump rope.
Other weighted jump rope devices allow a user to adjust the weight of the rope portion of the jump rope by adding counter-weights to set areas of the rope portion. This again results in an uneven distribution of weight throughout the length of the jump rope, making it awkward for a user to jump rope, and difficult to achieve a smooth and natural rotation of the jump rope.
Still other weighted jump rope devices require a user to change the entire rope portion of the jump rope in order to change the weight of the jump rope. The rope portion of such devices typically comprise a metal cable that can attach to each of two handles. Such metal cables tend to be expensive as, among other things, each cable includes its own separate mechanism (e.g., a metal clip) for attaching the cable to each handle. In addition, the cables typically have different diameters and properties that affect the performance and feel of the device, requiring users to adjust their jumping style whenever the cable is changed. Moreover, the rotational mechanisms in such ropes (e.g., ball bearings) typically allow for easy rotation by momentum, reducing the resistance provided by the rope and thus reducing the benefits of increasing the weight. Such devices also suffer from the problem that the cables themselves are quite hard and can injure and/or cause pain to a user if they strike the feet or head while jumping rope.
Another problem with known jump ropes is that there is no easy mechanism for users to track their workouts and determine when their goals have been reached. Users typically have goals in mind for their workouts, such as jumping rope for a certain amount of time. However, when a user is working out on his or her own, it is difficult to accurately measure the time intervals when jumping rope. Typically, a user will need a separate timer, which he or she has to monitor and control. This can be difficult, because jumping rope is an activity that requires the use of both hands. Thus, when using a timer, a user needs to first start the timer and then must pick up the rope and begin jumping. A user must also monitor the timer to determine when the time has elapsed. Of course, picking up the rope and starting to jump itself takes time, which causes the timer to be inaccurate as a measure of the exercise interval. If the user fails to notice when the timer has expired, this will also cause inaccurate results. Moreover, using a separate timer (or other standalone measurement device) is inconvenient for the user, because it complicates the workout and requires an extra device.
Accordingly, there is a need for a jump rope device capable of providing the cardiovascular benefits—along with the coordination, agility, speed, and footwork training capabilities—of a speed rope, with the strength and muscle endurance benefits of a weighted rope. In addition, there is a need for a jump rope device that allows a user to scale up his or her workout by progressively increasing the rotational resistance provided by the rope while jumping. There is also a need for a jump rope that allows a user to easily track his or her workouts and determine when his or her goals have been reached, without requiring a separate device during the workout. Moreover, there is a need for a jump rope that allows a user (or multiple users) to easily adjust the length of the jump rope to fit the user's height, strength, and/or skill level.
The present disclosure is directed to jump rope devices that address these and other problems in the art.